Qualifications

If you are a student who has had gender reassignment, or who is in transition, and you need your university or college to update your title, name, and gender on student records, you are entirely within your rights to ask this.  You should contact the Academic Registry/Student Registry/Student Office, or whatever department title applies within your university or college, to have your title, name and gender changed.  You will need your statutory declaration.  You do not require a Gender Recognition Certificate (see paragraph below for details).

Any such refusal by a university of college to facilitate the above can constitute discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment.  Transgender individuals are entitled to be shown respect for their gender and their name from the beginning, just as anyone else in society.

Some students may be more comfortable with informally changing their name amongst friends or selected family, while retaining their birth name for whole family or more formal situations.  Or they may simply be in circumstances where they are not yet ready to change their legal name.  If they wish to change their name on their student records, these individuals should receive the same level of assistance as if they were changing their name and title formally.  In this instance, if a student wishes to change their name, there should be a confidential discussion between the student and the Academic Registry/Student Registry/Student Office (or whatever applies in your case) to clarify when and where each name should be used with the aim of removing the possibility of revealing the student’s transgender identification.

This should also occur with an intersex student who may wish to change their title or remove it entirely.  Or in the case of any transgender or intersex student who just wishes to have the initials shown on their records or ID.  These requests too should be respected.

If you have left education, and need your qualification/exam certificates to be re-issued in your new title, name, and gender, then you are also entirely within your rights.  Whilst every university and college may be slightly different, you should write to the Examinations Office concerned, enclosing a certified copy of your statutory declaration.  There may be a fee, and it would be advisable to enquire beforehand.  You do not require your GRC (see paragraph below).

If your university refuses, write an appeal to the Examinations Office, with supporting evidence such as your statutory declaration and doctor’s letter.  Any such refusal by a university of college to facilitate your request constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment.  Transgender individuals are entitled to be shown respect for their gender and their name from the beginning, just as anyone else in society.

Intersex students can also request to remove their title entirely, if it is on their certificates.

It is a myth that you require a GRC to have your data updated or qualification certificates re-issued.  Some organisations believe that they cannot change their records until you have obtained this.  This is incorrect and could constitute discrimination.  You should not even be asked if you have a GRC or (if you have) if they can see it.   In fact, recording sight of a GRC is an automatic breach of Section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act.  The GRC’s ONLY purpose is to permit the individual to obtain a new birth certificate; it is not ‘proof’ of transgender status.

Whilst many universities and colleges are up-to-date with this information, it is always useful to be informed should you encounter any difficulty.